Tuesday, January 27, 2015

This Week's Stampin'Up! Weekly Deals {Jan 27} - Embossing folder mania!

Wait till you feast your eyes on this week's weekly deals! LOTS of super cute embossing folders are on sale! You can't go wrong picking up any of the embossing folders you might be missing.  I personally love the Decorative Dots, Lucky Stars and Polka Dot embossing folders...I'd say they're a must have for your paper crafting arsenal.  Have fun perusing the sale items or awesome Sale-a-bration or Occasions items on my online store here.

I'll catch up with you all soon! Stay tuned for posts from the Stampin'Up! Leadership Conference in Orlando. :)  I'll be posting on Instagram as well so feel free to follow me there - you can find me as stampdiehler.  Bye for now!


Friday, January 23, 2015

A Stitch Fix newbie: My first Fix!


Hi all! Happy Friday! So today, I'm diverging a bit from my crafting projects and sharing something new I'm trying for 2015. Have you heard of Stitch Fix?  Well, essentially, it's a personal styling service.  Sound interesting? It did to me, too! As part of this service, you get 5 items selected for you by a stylist and it's delivered to your home at a frequency of your choosing.  To put it in crafting terms, think of it as a completely personalized "My Paper Pumpkin" :). Now, you're probably wondering, well, how do they know what your style is? Well, as part of the sign up process, you fill out an extensive questionnaire that gives them a sense of what types of clothing you like.  You also can share a Pinterest board of your fashion style.  So, if you follow me on Pinterest, you may have noticed I've been adding to My Style Pinboard :)

I'm not in any way affiliated with Stitch Fix, but I loved the concept because, as someone juggling work and family life, I don't have a lot of time to spare to go shopping for myself!  Granted, I'm an online shopping queen, but when it comes to clothes shopping, I loved the idea of having a personal stylist outfit me.  So, there you have it.  Plus, for 2015, it's kind of a resolution of mine to try to be more stylish.  I'm excited to share this experience with you all to see how it goes.  Shall we get started with my first Fix?

I have to say I was giddy about getting the package today!  Here's what it looks like inside:


I was impressed with how nicely packaged it was. It comes with a prepaid return bag and a little welcome envelope that contains style cards for the items inside. Do you want to see what I got?


At first, I was a little nervous about the colors - they were a little darker than I was anticipating. I know it's still winter, but in my mind, I was already thinking Spring. Here's the breakdown on my five items:

#1: Skies are Blue Lucienne 3/4 Sleeve Ruffle Dress
It looked kind of cute as I held it up, but wasn't sure about it. Once I tried it on, I had to try it with a bunch of different shoes before I got a look that I liked.  Verdict: Debating

#2: Skies are Blue Cassandra Cut Out Detail Sleeveless Blouse
I was also unsure about this one. If I were shopping on my own, I wouldn't have necessarily picked this up.  It looked OK on and the back detail was actually kind of cute. Verdict: Debating

#3: Market & Spruce Lana Lace Detail V-Neck Blouse
LOVED this as soon as I saw it and it was really cute on as well! I could see myself definitely wearing this a bunch of different ways. It's a piece that can be dressed up or down. Verdict: Keeper

#4: Three Dots Julien Faux Leather Sleeve Knit Moto Jacket
Super Cute! I loved this one too right out of the gate. Looks cute on and very versatile. Verdict: Keeper

#5: Margaret M Emer Polka Dot Print High Waisted Cropped Pant
While it's considered a cropped pant, since I'm short, it's basically full length on me. Still, the cut is cute and there's a nice and subtle polka dot print. Verdict: Debating

Now, here's a look at the clothes on me.  In the 3 shots below, I do wear all the items, so you sort of get a sense of how they look. Pardon the photo quality...I took these on my iPhone at night.


I would love to hear what you think! Once you receive your items, you get 3 days to decide.  You keep the ones you want and send back the ones you don't want in the prepaid mailing bag. Then, you check out online. Easy peasy! There is a perk if you get all 5 pieces - you get 25% off the total.   So, here's my dilemma.  If I get my 2 "Keepers", it's a little pricey. And, if I get 3 items, it's almost the same price as getting it all.  The average price of the 5 items would come out to about $60 apiece, just to give you a guideline.

I think I'll ponder it for another day.  Would love to hear your comments.

If you're interested in trying Stitch Fix out, you can check it out here. I'll keep you posted on which items I do end up keeping from my first Fix!

Thanks for popping by! Have a great day!




Thursday, January 22, 2015

Mini coffee cups decked out in Sale-a-bration!


Hey there, blog friends! I've got a fun share today. I've had these mini coffee cups for quite a while now and can you believe I had not gotten around to creating anything with them yet?  Well, I finally decided it was time to bring them out and decorate them in the finest of 2015 Sale-a-bration DSPs! And, I think they turned out pretty cute, don't you? ;)

So, I can't take credit for the mini coffee cup pattern - I actually got that from Jill Coleman's blog.  I also ordered these 4 oz coffee cups from the webstaurantstore.com. I used the pattern Jill created, though I did have to tweak a little and trim a teenie bit off the bottom after I adhered the DSP to the cups.  The pattern definitely makes it easy peasy to dress up the cute plain little cups. {Thanks, Jill!}

What I did create was the carrier, which is actually, just a reboot of the carrier I created for the milk cartons on this post, with the only difference being the measurements.  Are you ready?:

You'll need:
*2 pieces of 4 1/4" x 4 1/4" cardstock  for the carrier base
*1 piece of 5 1/2" x 2 3/8" cardstock for the center handle


1. Score the 2 pieces of cardstock at 1" all the way around.  Then cut to the 1" scoreline at the creases along the 3 3/4" edge.  
2. Assemble the base and glue together using the Tombow Multi-Purpose glue.  Set aside to dry.
3. For the 5 1/2" x 2 3/8" piece of cardstock, punch the handle using the hexagonl punch.
4.  Assemble the carrier by placing the handle in between the 2 base boxes and gluing together using the Tombow Glue.  

5.  Embellish the carrier with DSP or cardstock.  I used  2 pieces of 3/4" x 7 1/8" DSP to decorate the base.  Score the pieces at 4 3/8", and then 6 5/8".  for the handle, I cut out 2 pieces of 2 1/8" x 5 1/4" DSP and adhered one piece at a time and punched the handle after adhering each one to the base handle piece, otherwise it gets too hard to punch!

And here's another look at the whole Mini Coffee Cup and Carrier ensemble:


Ta da! I would love to hear what you think!  Not only is this project really fun to make, these little cuties would make great teacher gifts or co-worker gifts for Valentine's day! I definitely encourage you to give it a whirl.

Thanks for popping over to visit.  Enjoy your day!



Wednesday, January 21, 2015

This week's Weekly Deals {Jan 20}

Hey there, blog friends! Are you ready for this week's Stampin'Up! Weekly Deals?! I think I gasped with excitement when I saw what was on sale this week! I love ALL of these products, so I am a little partial.  If I had to narrow it down, I'd say the Stampin' Blendabilities Markers Skin Tone Assortment is a total deal for those of you that enjoy coloring in with markers. It's definitely a staple to have! The In Color markers are pretty yummy, too, though.  If you'd like to take a closer look at all the deals, you can check them out here. These deals are available from Jan 20 - Jan 26 while supplies last!

Thanks for stopping by! :)


Saturday, January 17, 2015

Hearts and butterflies birthday card


Hi there, blog friends. I have finally gotten some time to stamp and play a bit more with my new Occasions and Sale-a-bration goodies!  Though, I have a confession to make. I was going through a bit of creativity block trying to come up with a card design. Do you ever get that feeling of having so many ideas in your mind that you don't know where to begin?  Top that off with being a little rusty from not crafting as frequently as I'd like to and that's exactly how I felt. I had a lot of stops and starts before I was finally able to design a card that I was excited about!

This is not a typical color palette for me, but one of my influences for this navy and reddish-pink {Night of Navy and Rose Red, to be exact} combo was because I've had France on the brain. I wanted to pay respects to the French in my own little way for the recent tragedies they experienced. So, this is where the inspiration came for the card, and I'm really pleased with how it came out.

The Butterflies Thinlits dies are so pretty, that I had lots of fun die cutting a bunch out of different colored cardstock to see how they looked!  (This diversion definitely helped in getting my creative juices flowing!) Despite their very intricate appearance of the die, these thinlits are really easy to work with.  The main tip here about die cutting with this amount of image detail is to use a layer of wax paper between the cardstock and the die and the die will easily peel right off! Now, let's take a look at the background, shall we? I love the look of those dots. I basically double stamped the dots to get the lighter shading of Rose Red.

Here's a closer look:


I love that one of the symbolic meanings of the butterfly is that it represents "new life." It makes me happy to create cards keeping that in mind :)  I'll defnitely get a lot of use for these thinlits!

Here's a list of the supplies I used for your reference.  Note that the items shown as $0.00 are Sale-a-bration items, which means that you can earn the item for free with a $50 purchase. Not bad, huh?  You can take a peek and shop at my online store if you'd like. You can also click on any of the items below to get to the store, too  :)

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog


Thanks for popping by today. Have a great weekend!


Friday, January 16, 2015

I {heart} the Berry Basket!

Hi all!  Just a quick note to tell you that I got to play with the new Berry Basket Bigz die from the Stampin'Up Occasions catty and I just LOVE IT! I also got to play with the new Happy Hearts embossing folder which is oh so sweet.  What do you think of these?  Would love to hear from you!

I'm blogging on the go today, so I'll share more pics and details about the dies and show more new product peeks from the yummy Occasions and Sale-a-brations catties this weekend.

Here's a quick product look for you:
Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog


Have a great day!


Tuesday, January 13, 2015

This week's Weekly Deals {Jan 13}

Hello all!  Happy Tuesday to you! I wanted to pop in real quick with this week's Stampin'Up! Weekly deals for Jan 13-19. The 3/8" ribbons are a great deal!  Also, if you need to round out your punch arsenal, the tag topper punch is a great time saver if you're making a bunch of tags and the itty bitty punch accents are a must have! Not only do they add quick cuteness to a card, but you can turn your scraps into cute embellies or confetti by punching out these cute shapes.  You can check these and all the new Occasions and Sale-a-bration goodies on my Online store!  

Sorry it's been a bit quiet this past week on my blog. 2015 has kicked off to a fast and busy start!  I promise to catch up with you all soon!  Hope you all have a fantastic day! :)


Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Happy New Year! It's time for Sale-a-bration!

Hi there blog friends! Happy New Year to you!  Hope you all had a great holiday with your friends and family. It was a busy time here at the home front, but it was nice we got to spend some quality time with my brother's family who was visiting from Alabama and we also got to do a road trip to San Luis Obispo to visit my hub's sister and family.  So, as you can imagine, the days pretty much just whirled by and here we are!

I'm exited to announce that today kicks of Stampin'Up!'s Sale-a-bration catalog, which is an awesome way to start the year!  From January 6 thru March 31, 2015, you can earn free products in the Sale-a-bration catalog with every $50 purchase. 


Today also marks the start of the new Stampin'Up! Occasions catalog, which is AMAZING as always this year. You will definitely not be disappointed! So, the pairing of these two catties is just a heavenly way to get your crafting started for 2015. You can do your shopping and earn free stuff! Woot woot!



To whet your appetite, how about video so you can take a look at one of the stamp sets you can earn!

Thanks for visiting today.  Have a great one!